


Nightmare Habits of Birds

by pennysparrow



Category: DCU (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), Red Robin (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics), The Flash (Comics)
Genre: Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-30 22:19:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8551354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pennysparrow/pseuds/pennysparrow
Summary: Wally and Bart discuss the sleeping habits of the younger members of the bat-family.





	

“It’s just one of those things,” Wally said from around a mouthful of food. He was sitting across the table from Bart in the Garrick’s kitchen. Both speedsters were snacking and catching up after an overly eventful past month.

“But it’s Tim. Tim. Like, the guy didn’t even show us his face for well over a year!” Bart had been explaining one of his non-dangerous adventures with his friends, the Teen Titans.

“That’s Bats though, not him. And you knew that.” Wally got up to pour himself a glass of milk and raised an eyebrow at his younger cousin from the fridge.

“Still. It was just so… Out of character for him. Like, Cassie and Kon cuddling each other and sharing a bed and what not is normal, they’re dating. But Tim went to bed. Actually went to get some sleep! And the rest of us ended up falling asleep in a pile on the couch watching movies, which happens a lot, and next thing we all know is there’s Tim standing in front of the couch with his comforter wrapped around his shoulders going ‘Guys? Um, guys? Can I squeeze in? I, uh, had a nightmare…’ and next thing I knew I had Tim Drake, Red Robin, snuggled between myself and Kon. That’s never happened before! And we’ve all known each other forever! Wally, this is not ‘just one of those things!’” Bart exclaimed at superspeed. Wally sat back down and handed Bart his own glass of milk.

“It’s the bats in general. They’re like that. Personally, I blame Dick since he started it.” Wally replied with a shrug. His face twisted as he amended his statement. “Not Batman. All his kids. Though Dick once said that right after he moved in Bruce would let him cuddle if he was scared…” Wally smirked a little at the thought and Bart just gaped at him.

“I- What? That- huh?” Bart’s brain was moving faster than his mouth as he attempted to process what Wally had said. He finally came to the only logical conclusion. “Are you saying the bats are cuddlers?”

“Dude, that’s exactly what I’m saying. And are you really that surprised? If anyone needs cuddles and nightmare comforting it’s them. The amount of fear gas they’ve all ingested over the years and the traumas they’ve all gone through.” Wally shook his head. “I’m surprised Tim hasn’t asked sooner. He is more reserved than Dick though.”  


Bart rubbed his temples and shook his head. He now remembered the key piece of information Tim had said when he asked to join the Titan cuddle puddle, that he had woken up from a nightmare. Tim then purposefully squeezed himself between Bart and Kon, his two best friends who died and came back. Bart slammed his head down onto the table, “I’m an insensitive idiot.” He mumbled into the checkered cloth.

“Don’t feel bad, took us months to figure out that Dick would sneak into someone’s room and sneak out again before they woke up when we were kids.”

Bart rolled his head to the side so that one eye peered up at the redhead, “What do you mean?”

Wally leaned back in his chair to prepare himself for the story. “Well, back in the early days, when it was still just me, Dick, Donna, Roy, and Garth, we would stay at that old cave every weekend. Just Saturday into Sunday. Sometimes we would come back from missions or fights and just be wiped. Mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted. On top of that we were all still dealing with our own crap. Me with my dad, Roy with Ollie, Dick with losing his parents, Garth with leaving Atlantis and not being excepted there or here, and Donna with what her past really was. We were each a mess and hadn’t thought the others could help clean it up. 

“Anyway, to this day Dick gets some pretty gnarly nightmares and he always needs someone else’s presence to calm him down and get him back to sleep. I think it has to do with the close quarters of the circus. But whatever. If that would happen when he was with the Titans he would always sneak into someone’s room, normally whoever was the most dead to the world, fall asleep next to them and leave before they knew what had happened. But sometimes he was sloppy and would leave a blanket or pillow that he had brought with behind. So, you’d wake up with this spare blanket and wonder where the heck it came from. I finally decided one day when we were all eating breakfast to ask if someone had given me an extra blanket in the middle of the night. Everyone shook their head and good old Donna goes ‘you know, a couple times now I’ve woken up with an extra blanket too.’ And Roy nods and says that he has too and Garth mentions that now that he thinks about he’s found blankets on the floor of the bathroom (cause he used to dry out if he didn’t sleep in the tub) and there’s Dick, avoiding eye contact and trying not to look suspicious but making himself look like the guiltiest person in the world.” Wally grinned and shook his head.

“So he hadn’t perfected that freaky calm face yet?”

“Ha. Not even close! And that was when 12-year-old Richard Grayson admitted to stealing midnight cuddles from all of us cause of his nightmares. Course we all understood! Just cause he was Robin didn’t mean he wasn’t human and more important that he wasn’t a kid like the rest of us. We told him to just come when he needed and not to bother leaving. It all worked out cause everybody needs somebody sometimes so basically whenever you had a nightmare or whatever you went to him and he just understood. 

“There was one night where he went to Garth and I went looking for him and found him on the floor next to the tub. So I went back to my room and grabbed a bunch of blankets and pillows and came back and curled up next to him. Ten minutes later Donna came in and ten minutes after that Roy. Garth woke up the next morning and asked why we were all there.” Wally shrugged and a nostalgic smile played across his lips. “We each explained why we couldn’t sleep and that’s when we realized we could be each other’s family. And we just never stopped doing that after the Titans grew bigger and we got older and it kinda became an accepted thing. If you couldn’t sleep you go to Nightwing’s room and don’t be surprised to wake up with him next to you from time to time.” 

Bart nodded, “Guess it makes sense that he does that with his actual family too.” 

“Course, you should hear him talk about it, it’s like a game to see who he can convince to cuddle the longest. And most everyone knows about it too. I’m honestly surprised you guys didn’t. Are you going to the Christmas party?”

“Yeah?” Bart was caught off guard by the abrupt topic shift.

“Sleeping over?”

“Yes?” 

“Good. Wake up around eight o’clock and watch who comes out of what rooms. You’ll see. Ten bucks even Damian was in the wrong room.”

Bart raised an eyebrow, he had heard a lot about the youngest Robin from Tim and didn’t believe the kid was a cuddler. “Ok, deal.”

***

The annual League/Titans/Batfam/JSA/Birds of Prey/hero community in general Christmas Party was always hosted in the week between Christmas and New Years at Wayne Manor. There was a mass secret Santa with no price limit, spiked eggnog, and an extremely entertaining carol karaoke contest. It also normally involved most of the world’s greatest heroes and their families all sleeping over and having one of the best catered breakfasts from Alfred in the morning.

Bart was rooming with Kon and was unsurprised when he woke at 8 as Wally had told him to find that sometime during the night Cassie had come into their room. What did surprise him was that she brought Kara, M’gann, Courtney Whitmore, Steph, Cass, Harper and her brother Cullen, Duke and Tim himself with her. 

Bart carefully stepped over the pile of snoring bodies on the floor and cracked the door open, positioning himself in front of it. He could hear the house around him waking up and watched as the few closed doors in the hall, where all the Titans and other “kids” normally slept, began opening one by one. 

The first was the room that was assigned to Lian Harper, out of it walked Damian Wayne, his own younger cousins Irey and Jai West, Damian’s friend Colin, Jon Kent and finally Lian herself. All still wearing their pajamas. They walked to the end of the hall, arguing quietly and obviously heading to breakfast.

Next was Jason Todd’s room. Out came Jason followed by his teammates Kori and Roy but also Donna. The four were also still in a mix of baggy t-shirts and old sweatpants as they followed after the kids to the kitchen.

Bart continued to watch as the door that he knew led to Dick’s room opened and Wally and his wife Linda came out followed by Barbara Gordon who was protesting Dick pushing her wheelchair. Dinah Lance was the last and she closed the door, laughing at the protests that everyone else was ignoring from the almighty Oracle. 

“Bart?” He heard a groggy voice from behind him. “What’re you doing?” Tim asked as he brushed his dark hair out of his eyes.

“Thinking I owe Wally ten bucks. And that you have a weird family.”

“Why thank you,” Steph mumbled from the pile of pillows she was still half buried under. “We’re big fans of platonic cuddling.”

Bart just grinned, “Well now I know. Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” He flopped down onto the pile of teenagers and heard various groans and curses in a multitude of languages as he snuggled into his friends.

**Author's Note:**

> This is set in my own personal universe which is a super odd combination of canon. Same 'verse as the Flock.


End file.
